Remembering Chespirito’s Often Overlooked Film Career

Acclaimed Mexican comedian Roberto Gomez Bolaños, known as “Chespirito,” died on Friday at the age of 85 in Cancun. Even though he’s mostly known and celebrated for the characters he created for television — including El Chavo del Ocho and El Chapulín Colorado — Chespirito also had considerable success in cinema having acted in several films, writing various screenplays, and directing a handful of feature films.

As a screenwriter, Gómez Bolaños worked on numerous comedy films between 1959 and 1970. His first incursion into film as an actor was in 1960 in the comedy film Dos locos en escena directed by Agustín P. Delgado and starring popular comedians Viruta and Capulina. He also appeared in several other films including Dos criados malcriados (Agustín P. Delgado, 1960), El mundo loco de los jóvenes (José María Fernández Unsaín, 1967), Operación Carambola (Alfredo Zacarías, 1967), and El Zángano (Agustín P. Delgado, 1968).

In 1979, based on the success of his television shows, he wrote and starred in the film El Chanfle which was directed by Enrique Segoviano. The film follows the adventures of a a water boy for a Mexican club soccer team who sees thwarted the dream of having a child after 10 years of marriage. The film was a huge success at the box office in Mexico and other countries in Latin America. Based on the popularity of the film, Chespirito himself wrote and directed the sequel El Chanfle II in 1982.

He went on to direct three other feature films starring the same actors from his popular TV shows: Don Ratón y Don Ratero (1983), Charrito (1994), and Música de viento (1988).

In 1996 he was appointed director of Televicine, the film arm of the Mexican media conglomerate Televisa. In his tenure as director of Televicine the company produced La última llamada (Carlos García Agraz, 1996), Elisa antes del fin del mundo (Juan Antonio de la Riva, 1997), and La primera noche (Alejandro Gamboa, 1998).

This article originally appeared on Cinema Tropical’s blog TropicalFRONT and was re-posted with permission.